1. Field of the Invention
A flexible jewelry link chain and more particularly, a flexible jewelry link chain having readily removable or addable link elements.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In most conventional link chains, the link elements are permanently hinged to one another and require the time and expertise of a jeweler to take apart and reassemble hinges when the length of a chain is to be altered in order to fit a selected chain to a purchaser's wrist. Sometimes, to facilitate such alteration in length, one or more end link elements are specially designed to be readily detachable without the need for disassembling and reconstructing an as-sold permanent hinge.
One such construction utilizes pintles having retractable outwardly spring-loaded ends; however, these pintles are inherently weak, are made of several small parts and are considerably more expensive than solid pintles.
Another construction, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,726,083, employs end links in which a link half has two bearings, one being closed and the other being closeable selectively by manually shifting a plate between two extreme positions. In one position, said bearing is an open cradle and, in the other, the bearing is closed, the plate remaining in either position to which it last is shifted. The other link half has two solid pintles. When one of the link elements is to be removed, the pintle link half is detached from the adjacent bearing link half after shifting the plate to open the bearing. Although such construction is rugged and aesthetically attractive, it requires manual movement of the plate in both directions first to open and thereafter to close the bearing, and it is susceptible to accidental opening of the chain if the plate is loose, is not fully closed or catches on an object.